A Lesson in Murder: A totally unputdownable historical cozy mystery (A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery Book 7) by Verity Bright

Author:Verity Bright [Bright, Verity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800195707
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

Eleanor busied herself tidying the plates while the girls dragged the chapel stools into a circle, whispering heatedly. She then wandered through to the small kitchen and set to washing up. As she finished, Duffy appeared in the doorway.

‘Please may we ask you to come before the council, miss?’

‘Of course, Duffy.’

In the sitting room, they were all standing respectfully in front of their stools, looking apprehensive. Eleanor perched on the spare one Duffy indicated, feeling like a giant as the girls each plopped down onto theirs. Something in the atmosphere transported her back to her school days. She felt that long-ago familiar air, the one charged with a mix of excitement and anxiety, and it made her heart skip. The stakes mattered to these girls. They mattered a lot. And, she realised with a jolt, that meant they mattered to her too. She mentally crossed her fingers, hoping she could think of something to help them.

Duffy stood up with her notebook. ‘Lady Swift, as we have established you are not really our boarding mistress, would it be cheating if we asked you to be our secret weapon for the competition?’

Aware that all eyes were on her, Eleanor hesitated before answering. ‘I don’t think so.’

Duffy cleared her throat. ‘Then, as the leader of Holly House, it is my duty and my honour’ – she frowned as Morton giggled at this – ‘to ask: will you be our secret weapon?’

‘Pleeeeeeeeeease,’ the room chorused.

Duffy shuffled across the floor on her knees, stopping in front of Eleanor with her notebook held open.

‘We took a vote and look.’ She slapped the page. ‘We all voted for you.’

Eleanor failed to stop her eyes from sliding over to Elsbury, who gave her a quiet smile and then stared at her hands.

‘First of all then, thank you. I’m the one who is honoured to have been asked, but’ – she held up a finger at the excited chatter that started – ‘what is it that you think I can offer as your secret weapon?’

‘Simple, miss,’ Duffy said. ‘You’ll make sure we’re pluckier than any Holly House girls have ever been.’

‘Definitely,’ Weston, Harrison and Finsmore cheered in unison.

Eleanor tilted her head and looked at Duffy.

‘We heard you cycled across the world,’ the girl said imploringly. ‘There is nothing you couldn’t do after that.’

Morton looked sideways at Eleanor. ‘But more importantly, you let slip that you were naughty when you were here.’

‘I’m sure I didn’t,’ Eleanor said with a smile.

‘Oh yes you did, miss!’ the girls chorused.

‘Well, I can see I’ve been rumbled,’ Eleanor said. ‘Consider me your official secret weapon.’

At the cheer that erupted, she placed her hands over her ears again.

Still on her knees, Duffy shuffled over to Elsbury.

‘Thanks, Piggy Piggerton. Maybe now I might get my name recorded as the leader who finally won the trophy after all those years!’

‘I bet if she was still here, she’d jump up and down with excitement if… no when you do,’ Elsbury said.

‘Who’s she?’ Eleanor couldn’t stop herself asking.

‘The Holly House leader back in 1871 when our house last won the competition, miss.

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